Asteroid No Threat to Earth in 2040: Study

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A huge asteroid that will creep near Earth in 28 years will pass
harmlessly by, a new study confirms.

New observations of the
asteroid 2011 AG5 now give astronomers complete confidence
that the 460–foot-wide (140 meters) space rock won't hit Earth in
the year 2040. When it was discovered last year, scientists said
that 2011 AG5 had a 1-in-500 chance of impact with our planet.

Astronomers solidified the asteroid's harmless status during an
observation campaign in October using the Gemini North telescope
in Hawaii. The finding added more support to a
NASA study that came to a similar conclusion in June based on
months of observations of asteroid 2011 AG5.

But now, judging by the path of the two-football-field-sized
asteroid, it shouldn't get any closer than 550,000 miles (890,000
kilometers) — about twice the distance between the Earth and the
moon — when it zips by our planet.

"These were extremely difficult observations of a very faint
object," Richard Wainscoat, a member of the team of researchers
that monitored 2011 AG5 said in a statement. "We were surprised
by how easily the Gemini telescope was able to recover such a
faint asteroid so low in the sky."Just because it is a large
asteroid, doesn't mean it is easy to see, scientists said.
Researchers used the Gemini North to photograph the asteroid
three times in October.

NASA astronomers and other scientists regularly monitor the sky
for
asteroids that could pose a potential impact threat to Earth.
About 9,000 such near-Earth asteroids have been discovered to
date, though up to a million or more could actually exist, NASA
scientists have said.

Nearly 95 percent of the largest near-Earth asteroids, those
larger than one kilometer in size, have been identified, NASA
scientists have said. The space agency's Asteroid Watch program
to monitor nearby space rocks is based at the Jet Propulsion
Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.